Max liked snakes, He was fine with them, He liked how they slithered, He liked how they eat, and how they shed their skin, at one point he had a small collection of snake skins, collected from the zoo, so basically he was fine with this, until Mrs Doe discovered them and there them out while screaming at him.

However, this was a big snake, like not a long snake, Long snakes made sense, Long snakes were normal and cool and only kind of terrifying if you saw them swallowing things, (Or yawning)

This one was different. This one was a giant, which was bad enough, however the thing that scared MAx was the look on its face, a look of hate.

See there's a little known fact about animals in Amphibia, They're smart.

They can think, They can also feel, they remembered, and they held grudges.

Max watched the snake as it lunged towards Anne and Sprig, they jumped out of the way, the snake passed through the Lily pad like it was paper.

"Why didn't it do for us." said Max confused, They closer it would only make sense that it would go after them?

"They have history with this snake," Said Polly, who was by his side. "Frobo, get to the lake shore, Now, Max, stay out of the water."

Polly jumped across the railing and in to the water.

"POLLY!" cried Mr. Plantar, "Wait for me."

Polly looked at her grandfather, "No, Hop-Pop you're…"

"I'm fine, Come on."

The old frog dove underwater, followed by Polly.

Max stood on Frobo, holding the railing in a tight grip, looking for any sign of activity.

There was an explosion from behind him, Frobo was rocked, Max did everything to try and hold on, He turned around expecting to see the snake poised to strike.

What was behind him was a sight he couldn't believe.

Polly was on the snake's head punching it again and again.

Sprig was biting its side.

Mr. Plantar was holding on screaming like an animal.

He couldn't see Anne, was she…

His fears were somewhat abated when the snake plunged into the water again, Its tail was lifted out of the water briefly, Anne was holding on to it screaming as she plunged back into the water.

Max stood there, "Frobo, Do you have any weapons?"

"No, Polly was banned from using explosives.

Max was quiet for a second, "Huh, I've only known her for two days, Is it strange I kind of understand that?"

"No, you're one of the lucky people Polly hasn't broken yet."

Max looked over the railing trying to make anything of the battle out.

…

Hopediah knew one thing, He was born to swim, His whole biological family was born to swim, Heck Anne was a strong healthy human women, but she was still slow underwater.

Despite this, everything still hurt, every single movement just made his body burn more.

He watched as his grandchildren swam out of the way of the snake and dodged it in a display of aquatic gymnastics.

The snake was fast, but his babies were faster.

However, Anne, his adopted baby, was just floating there, if the snake caught her…

No, The world had taken ten years away from her, He was not going to lose her again.

He swam towards her, he grabbed her hand, she briefly struggled, they surfaced next to Frobo and grabbed onto the railings.

"What's happening?" asked Max.

Hopediah, looked up and saw the boy standing there a scared look on his face,

Max, you have to swim away from this, just get in the water and swim away we'll…"

"I can't," said Max terrified.

"Why not?" said Anne.

Max closed his eyes, "I don't know how to swim."

"OF ALL THE STUPID THINGS TO DO." should Hopediah.

"HOP-POP" said Anne angrily.

"WELL IT IS HE ENDANGERED HIS LIFE SO THAT…"

That's when something clicked in Hopediah.

The kid had done this just to keep him safe, he was willing to risk drowning just to make sure his family would know about his lie.

He turned and looked at the boy again, his eyes were closed, tears were starting to appear at the corners of his eyes.

He had just yelled at the boy who was in danger because of an old frog's fear.

"Max," said Hopediah.

Max looked at him tears still in his eyes.

"I'm sorry, We'll talk after we've escaped this creature."

He then turned to Anne, "We've got to get away from this creature."

"Duh," said Anne, "How?"

"I don't know maybe we can hit it, with something."

"With what?"

Hopediah looked around and saw the answer.

"Frobo, Sorry to ask this but…"

"If it goes fast enough it might knock itself out." said Frobo, The robot did not want to have a snake smash into him. But when the matter of family came into it, he knew a little rebuilding was worth their lives.

Frobo stopped moving.

Anne turned to Max, "MAx, Hold on to the railing, things are about to get bumpy."

Max looked at her, "But I'll…"

Hopediah interrupted, "if something happens, I'll get you, I promise."

Max slowly nodded, the boy was still scared, but he was trying to be brave, he turned to Anne, "Get ready."

They dived.

Polly and Sprig were doing their best to avoid the snake, but it was getting closer with each bite, Hopediah swam away as he watched Anne swim towards the snake.

It took only a few seconds for it to realize Anne was the slowest, it just looked at her and swam towards her, Anne just floated there she closed her eyes.

Just before it reached her, Hopediah swam. He raised his fist and slammed into its face.

The Snake flew backwards and looked at him with unrelenting hate, He swam away from and towards the older frog, Hopediah swam away from it, up, down, left right, swimming in all directions just slow enough to make it think it had been about to get an easy meal.

The moment came when Hopediaah started to swim up.

The snake was just behind him, about to eat him, it opened its mouth wide.

At the last moment Hopediah swam left,

There was a muffled thump, Hopedaih turned around to see the snake's body slowly falls to the bottom of the late.

HE saw his family swimming towards him, They all swam up and surfaced.

Hopediah turned and laughed, "Haven't needed to do that in a while."

"Yeah I…" Polly started to say before her mouth opened in fear, "FROBO!"

Hopeidah turned and saw that Frobo had been turned upside down, Hopediah first were of the Max

The rest of the family swam over to Frobo, Not he though, He dove.

…

Max did try to hold on to the railing as hard as he could, however the moment the snake hit the bottom of the boat, he went flying.

The moment he landed in the water he did his best swim, His best being what he had seen in movies and on TV. He moved his arm and legs but nothing happened, he looked up he could just see the Plantars and Anne swimming above him.

They couldn't see him, they had ignored him, and were getting further and further away by the second, No one was coming, He was going to die underwater and no one would know.

He looked at the bottom of the lake he wondered if he could how his breath long enough and walk back he saw the snake body, maybe it would wake up and devour him.

He felt his lungs burn, this was going to be it, he was going to die.

Then something wrapped their arms around his stomach, looking up He saw His rescuer was Hopediah.

In seconds, they reached the surface, Hopediah than swim him to the lake shore.

Max took a few breaths then looked at Mr. Plantar, the old frog was panting heavily himself.

"You saved me," he said.

"Yeah, I made a promise and when a Plantar makes a promise they…"

Hopedaih trailed off, he shock his head, he started to wobble.

"They…"

Mr Planar started to fall.

"Max leapt up and grabbed him, stopping him from hitting the floor twice in one day.

"HOP-POP" He screamed, In second the rest of the Plantars, where beside him, Frobo had returned to his robot form, Anne and Sprig had gotten dressed, The then robot picked up the small frog man.

"We have to get him." said Sprig.

With that The group ran.
Max followed, holding back the guilt.

…

Hopediah was in darkness.

Surrounding him was nothing but shadow, this place it felt wrong, like a world where even light dreaded to go, for even that would be swallowed up by the darkness. For some reason the pain of swimming away from a snake and dragging a heavy human had vanished.

It suddenly hit him what had happened

"So this is the afterlife," said Hopedaih calmly, "Always figure there'd be a few chairs."

"Yes, Sorry about that we really need to decorate this place a little."

Hopediah turned to see a tall sharply dressed Frog standing there, his skin was red, a small goatee was on his chin, and in his was a cane with a bird skull on top.

A name entered his head confused, "Mr Littlepot?"

"Right first time," he said taking a bow, "So good to see you again Hopediah."

Hopediah shook his head, "No, You're not real, I made you up as a sorry to tell…"

"To tell during the Shut in," Mr Littlepot laughed, "Yes, I am, Funny how that works."

Hopediah felt his shoulder fall, seeing the Frog reaper standing in front of him made him realize just how much it was over.

"So, this is it then?" he asked knowing the answer.

Littlepot nodded, "Yes, On the plus side it was a good death, saving the boy was a favor to me."

"Really?"

Mr Littlepot nodded again, "I hate escorting children to the afterlife, it's… Not a pleasant experience."

"You're welcome, I guess."

"Yes now follow me," Said Mr Littlepot turning around, "Your family is waiting for you."

Hopedaih stood there, this was how it should end right? He died saving a kid, someone he had wronged.

However on a whim, he stopped walking.

"Where?"

Littlepot stopped walking and turned his head, "What do you mean?"

"Where are they waiting for me? The afterlife? Or earth?"

Mr Littlepot narrowed his eyes, "You know how this goes right? You know even if I'm not real, I represent something you cannot run away from."

Hopediah nodded, "Yeah, I know that, I know I'll have to meet you one day, but not today."

With that he turned around and ran.

Slowly the pain returned to his body, his legs were on fire his heart was pounding, a seventy-eight-year-old frog shouldn't have to run like this, but he couldn't afford not to, His grandchildren still needed him, He had only reunited with Anne, The farm still needed someone to run it, He needed to apologize to Max, He would not leave Sylvia again.

Eventually he saw a light appearing before him.

The closer he got, the more he could hear crying, the crying of his grandchildren.

"Hopediah," said the voice of Mr Littlepot from behind him.

Hopediah didn't turn, he just kept running.

"Ten years ago, I didn't take a soul on the day of the final battle, Not your granddaughter, and not the other."

He ignored the voice, he just kept running.

"When the time comes, You will understand."

And then there was light, not much at first, but the more his eyelids raised, the more he took in, the more his heart sank.

He was in a hospital bed, the room was as clean as somewhere as Wartwood could be, His three grandchildren were sitting together holding on to each other, He could hear Polly crying, That's when he knew things were bad, Frobo was to the side, looking at his bed sadly.

"Hey, did I miss anything?"

All of a sudden his family rushed over towards him.

"Are you okay?" Asked Sprig.

"How long have you been sick?" asked Anne

"Don't you dare die on me old man." demanded Polly.

Hopeidah looked at all of them, He wished he could tell them he was fine, but he knew his kids, they were smart, and he had lied to them enough.

"Kids, I'm sorry, Anne, I had a fall, just one day I was talking to Polly and Frobo at breakfast and… well."

"He just fell," said Polly quietly, "He just fell I had no idea what to do, Sylvia helped, and they got him here and… "

Frobo placed his robotic on her shoulder for comfort.

Hopeidah watched his youngest granddaughter start to cry again, Polly had always been one of the bravest frogs she ever knew, and he had hurt her again.

He needed to admit the truth, as much as it hurt.

"Kids I'm sorry I just wanted to keep everyone happy for more days, I was going to tell you all later but…"

"Why though?"

Hopediah sighed "I didn't want you to worry about me,"

"You did a bad job of that." said Polly bitterly.

"Polly," said Sprig angrily

"No, she's right, Polly, I'm sorry I scared you, scared all of you, It's just… I didn't want to admit It was almost over, I told Sprig the night of the festival that… I was going to go one day, and I was fine with that… I lived a good life, I helped people and…" Hopediah words trailed away from him, the words were harder to say now.

"So what changed?" said Anne.

Hopediah exhaled, "You came back."

The family looked at him.

"I just didn't want to be a burden, I wanted you all to be happy."

He expected theme to yell, he expected Polly to punch him, he expected Sprig to just walk away, he expected Anne to be angry at him, He didn't know what Frobo would do.

Instead, all four of them hugged him, it was hard considering he was laying down in a bed but they manged to do it.

"Hop-Pop, Don't you think for one moment that you're a burden to us, You spent years looking after us, so we have to do the same for you now." said Polly hugging him tighter.

"Honestly the only thing I'm mad is that you knew this, and you were still working." said Anne.

"I know, I'm sorry kids, Listen I'll clear my schedule for the rest of the week and take some time off to spend with you."

"That sounds perfect," said Anne.

"Does this mean one of use is going to have to take over the farm soon?" asked Sprig.

Everyone looked at Sprig then Hopediah, The old frog shrugged, "Well it was going to happen eventually, Kids… I'm leaving the farm to Frobo."

"What?" said the three biological grandchildren.

"YES!" said Frobo fist pumping with his actual fist pumps.

"Why?" asked Polly.

"Because he's good at farming, Has a literal calculator for a brain and because I don't think any of you want to take over the farm."

The three biological grandchildren looked and him and shrugged.

"Fair."

"I got robots to build."

"I Honestly I have gotten used to not waking up at the crack of dawn anymore."

Hopediah, smiled, that's when he realized something, "Hey, Anne could you do me a favor?"

…

Max looked up the moment he saw Anne enter the waiting room, she had a neutral look on her face.

Two hours ago he could tell that she was too upset to address him properly. Now she seemed better. Did that mean Hop-Pop was alright?

"Is he…" said Max the words failing him.

"He's fine," said Anne, "He wants to speak to you."

The guilt returned, "Oh."

Max stood up and followed her, he expected her to chew him out or tell him he was terrible, a part of him wanted that, he thought back to the last time he was in a hospital waiting room.

It was just after the Mrs Grovie had fallen, his parents called the ambulance, Mrs Doe traveled with her, Mr Doe with him.

He was told to cry to make anyone who asked him what happened feel bad for him, he tried to speak back, but Mr Doe only raised his hand, that was all that was needed.

He did cry, and when the old lady's family arrived asking what happened, Max remembered the threat Mr. Doe gave him, how he'd hurt Mrs. Grovie and then threatened him, he lied to them, he lied so well that they hired his Mr. Doe on the spot to help with their investments.

That was the day he realized, his adoptive parents weren't good people.

They reached the room, Anne opened the door and gestured him to enter.

Inside he could see the family gather around Hop-Pop who sitting up, with a smile on his face, it took a second for him to notice max but when he did his smile faltered.

"Max I-"

"I'm sorry," blurted out Max.

Everyone was surprised by that outburst.

"It's all my fault you got sick, and you had to save and If I just-"

"Max…slow down." said Hop-Pop, "It's okay, You're not to blame, it was my fault."

Max looked at him surprised, "What?"

"It was my fault, I tried to bribe you because… Well, I wanted to keep my family in the dark, You started to do the right thing and I made you do the wrong, and you tried to fix it, that's a sign of growth that is."

"So I'm not in trouble?" said Max, surprised, "But after everything…"

"Max," said Hop-Pop, "Trust me, one of the true signs of growth isn't getting things right the first time, it's admitting when you're wrong, and what you'll do to fix it."

The old frog was looking behind Max towards Anne, he turned around to see Anne had a smile on her face.

"So am I in…"

"You're not in trouble." said Anne, "In fact, Hop-Pop wanted to give you something."

"Is it more money?"

He felt the glare he received from everyone but Hop-Pop

"Joking, Joking."

"No, until you have to go back home consider yourself one of the family."

"Really?" said Max shocked.

"Yeah, first things first we could get you a futon, you can share a room with Sprig."

"Why me?" asked Sprig annoyed.

"Well you're the only other guy in the house, and I'm not foolish to let him stay with Polly."

Sprig stood there for a second and turned to Max, "Do you like to sleep with the window opened or closed?"

"Closed," said Max, "It's not that hot at night."

Sprig nodded, "Okay he's cool."

"So what were you going to use the money on?" Polly asked Max,

Max shuffled, "Well honestly I want some books a map, you know souvenirs."

Hop-Pop laughed, "Well why didn't you say so earlier.

…

Hop-Pop's study was full of shelves full of books, more books than Max had ever seen before, they were all hardback and leather, near the window was a desk, on top of it was a bottled ship and a magnifying glass.

The old frog walked towards one of the newer books on the shelf, pulled it out, and handed it to Max who read the title.

"The new Amphibia Atlas."

"Yep, the war changed well damaged the Amphibian geography and well… we needed to redraw the maps."

Max opened the book and looked at the island, "Huh, It looks like a lily pad."

"Huh never noticed," said Hop-Pop briefly surprised, "Well take as long as you want with it, and read anything else you want, you got run of the study."

Hop-Pop turned around, and headed towards the door.

"Hop-Pop?" said Max hesitantly.

The old frog turned around, "Yes Max?"

Max was smiling, "Thanks for everything."

Hop-Pop smiled and walked out the room.

Max looked at the book for a second, headed to the desk and placed it down open.

He then pulled out his phone and started to take photos of each page.

The map was everything he needed, even if he was welcome here now he'd have to go eventually, so this was necessary.

After the atlas he started to pull out a book on Amphibia towns and cities, then one on history, and so on and so forth, he did this for two hours. He only stopped when he heard a knock on the door.

"Come in." said Max.

The door opened and Anne entered, "Hey."

"Hey," repaid Max.

Anne walked over to the desk, there was an embarrassed look on her face, "Listen, about earlier, at the lake, I only looked at you like that because well, I was scared about Hop-Pop."

"I get it," said Max nodding.

"Yeah but I shouldn't have done it, I'm sorry."

"It's okay,"

Anne smiled at him,"Yeah, um, You don't mind if I stay here for a few minutes? I need to check out a book.

"Really which one?"

Anne smiled vanished and was replaced with a curious look, "Hop-Pop has a book on dangerous Amphibia animal's it's like twenty-seven volumes long have you seen any of them?"

"Max nodded and turned the book he was currently reading over to show Anne the cover, "Big book of animals that will kill you and worse, vol 27 out of 27"

"Great, is there anything in that one about the water snake we saw earlier?"

Max turned the pages back. Stopping at a picture of the same snake from earlier. He held back a shudder, that thing was terrifying, not as much as near drowning but still.

Anne looked at the page, her eyes narrowed in concern, "Huh."

"What?" said Max.

"The Lacus Anguis shouldn't be in this part of Amphibia this time of the year, It should be heading for warmer pastures, but instead it was in the lake."

"Maybe it needed to move?"

"Why though?"

"Invasive species invading its usual home? Lack of food? Lack of mating?"

Anne smiled, "Well looks like someone was listening to me the whole time"

Max smiled back, "Yeah, but it's still weird.

Anne's smile faded, "Listen Max, maybe you should go back?"

"No," said Max scared, claiming down he looked at her again, "No, I'll be fine."

Anne looked at Max with all the authority she could muster, Max found himself slightly intimidated.

"Max, This is the second time in three days I've almost been killed today, I don't want the same thing to happen to you."

"Second?"

Anne walked over to the bookshelf and pulled out another volume of the "Big book of Animals that will kill you, vol 15" she opened and turned to the picture of a Giant red mantis.

"We were attack by this thing in a dead Herons nest, it almost got me Sprig and Mary, This place is dangerous, I don't want you to get hurt."

"Bit late for that," said Max smiling.

"Max," said Anne worried.

"Did they attack you in town?"

Anne shook her head, "No but…"

Then I'll stay in town, where it's safe.

Anne just looked at him how a second before sighing "Okay stay, but you have to promise that you will won't go looking for trouble, okay?

Max nodded "Okay so on top of don't pull pranks there's also don't throw yourself into danger, I think I can handle that."

Before Anne could respond there was a call, "DINNERS READY, FROBO COOKED IT."

Max stood up and walked to the door, "Coming?"

Anne smiled, "Yeah, Just hope it's not slug pie."

"I eat grub sausages today, how bad can slug pie be?"

"Tell me that when you're over a toilet emptying your stomach."

As she walked off Max looked back, he would be back here later, what Anne said worried him, but he knew that he could survive this world.

…

Doctor Frakes walked back into the lab and looked at the monolith at the other end of the land, between them was the guardian still in cat form, not looking hurt but tired, they had experimented on it for two days, trying to find how they could access its powers.

Another person would feel bad about that, She was willing to ignore that voice that cried out this was wrong.

"Anything?"

"Not yet, We can still only keep one portal open at a time."

"More tests then?"

"Obviously."

There was a coughing sound from the cage, all eyes were drawn to the cat.

"I won't…give you… what you…want." said the cat struggling to stand.

"I know," said the Core, "Honestly it's fun to watch,"

Frakes watched as the electrical charge went to the bow, no noise of pain came from the creature, she'd be impressed if she knew that it wasn't a sigh of the core failure.

"So what now then?" asked Frakes.

"We continue this and the other projects, the signal is still going out, We don't have any evidence it's working just yet, how's the reconstruction going."

"We'll only have one hundred, but it should be enough, You don't have a castle anymore, but a few soldiers might scare the locals."

"Adequate, Soon we're going to have everything we've ever wanted,"

Frakes smiled, soon the world would know her name and give her the respect she deserved.